Sabanot – The Subject (HMS "Warspite" commemoration)

Before Sabaton would set battlefields ablaze with riffs, before Maiden painted dogfights on vinyl, there was HMS “Warspite”: the Old Lady who bullied empires from Jutland spray to Salerno smoke. This track is a straight-line charge through her logbook, using Lt-Cmdr R. A. B. Mitchell’s poem “The Subject” as the spine. Think heavy artillery wrapped in a hymn, equal parts sea salt, cordite, and stubbornness. “The subject is courage forged in boiler flame, The subject is thunder cast in Queen Elizabeth’s name…” Audio: “The Subject” – text by Lt-Cmdr R. A. B. Mitchell, adapted/performed for this tribute. Visuals: Public-domain & Crown Copyright imagery from Imperial War Museum / Royal Museums Greenwich. Video editing: Annabel Clawee * * You say you have no subject And your brushes all have dried; But come to Marazion At the ebbing of the tide. And look you out to seaward, Where my Lady battle scarred Hugs the rock that is more welcome, Than the shameful breakers yard. Paint her there upon the sunset In her glory and despair, With the diadem of victory Still in flower upon her hair. Let her whisper as she settles Of her blooding long ago, In the mist that mingles Jutland With the might of Scapa Flow. Let her tell you, too, of Narvick With its snowy hills, and then Of Matapan, Salerno And the shoals of Walcheren; Paint her there upon the sunset In her glory and despair, With the diadem of victory Still in flower upon her hair. And finally of Malta, When along the purple street Came in trail the Roman Navy To surrender at her feet. Of all these honours conscious, How could she bear to be Delivered to the spoiler Or severed from the sea? So hasten then and paint her In the last flush of her pride On the rocks of Marazion, At the ebbing of the tide.